Suspensions as R50m tender probed
Two board members from KwaZulu-Natal’s Agribusiness Development Agency, Sinethemba Cele and Nkosenhle Mngadi, have been placed on suspension amid a probe into a questionable R50 million tender allegedly given to a company with links to politicians.
The millions, approved for payment to AGB Finance, were sourced from the troubled National Skills Fund for the agency to support previously disadvantaged farmers in KZN, according to an internal document seen by The Citizen.
In the Agribusiness Development Agency’s internal memo to chair Willies Mchunu, who is also a former premier of KZN, its acting chief executive Dr Nonhlanhla Myeni motivated for the tender to be passed down to AGB Finance and for the bid adjudication committee’s initial award to Umbuso Growth Management be overruled.
She claimed her team had established anomalies in the bid documents submitted by Umbuso Growth Management.
“The acting CEO conducted a thorough analysis on the potential bidders to establish the veracity of the information submitted by all bidders,” she wrote.
“This was triggered by glaring anomalies that were identified in Umbuso Trading Service’s bid documents.”
Among the discrepancies Myeni said were picked by the verification process was that Umbuso Growth Management was not a joint venture as it claimed to be in its bid documents.
Two months later, the board placed Cele and Mngadi on suspension amid allegations of misconduct.
It’s not clear what the allegations are but The Citizen has it on good authority that their suspensions relate to the tender.
Board spokesperson Palesa Kwitshana referred questions to the shareholder of Agribusiness – the KZN department of agriculture and rural development.
Mchunu and Myeni declined to comment and referred questions to the MEC’s office.
The MEC’s spokesperson, Lethu Nxumalo, promised to issue a statement by last Friday but failed to do so.
Efforts to get a comment from Cele and Mngadi were also unsuccessful at the time of going to press.
Meanwhile, two senior officials at the National Skills Fund, from which the R50 million was taken, have been charged by the department of higher education, science and innovation in connection with R5 billion that has gone missing.
Fraud and payment of suppliers for non-existant work was also uncovered by a forensic investigation commissioned by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande.